X-Board

The aim of the analisys of a strong product already in production for several years, is the challenge to find some error in this last one. The field of the study was the extreme sports with the focus on skateboarding, rinding BMX and Parkour.

I chose skateboarding  because I thought that just the skateboard as product get a room of improvement. Indeed after a deep studio in skater culture I knew that exsist two big category: street board and long board.

As much as these two look alike, there is a world of difference, especially for the different use and for the different action context. The street skateboard enables to ride in the skatepark for its agility, but it is not too fast on the city movement. Instead the long board does not allow the tricks in the skate parks for the big dimensions, but it is really fast and stable, perfect to move on the road.

So, from that findings, the will was to create an hybrid product that makes possible the coexistence of the two futures of the diffent kinds of skateboards. The solution is a board that fuse the essential differences between skateboards: the shape of the board, the distance between the trucks and the size of the wheels.

These conclusions are possible through an exclusive system of locks for the hubs and for the rapid wheels change, and for a completely new shape of the board. With the same key it’s possible to open the locks of the wheelbase to make it longer or shorter, and to remove the wheels and change them in few seconds. In longboard mood it’s possible to insert bigger wheels with an harder compound, instead with the streetboard mood it’s possible to have smaller and softer wheels, both made in urethane.

The board, with the inclusion of the inox steel locks, it would become too heavy, so it was designed in a new material named 3D glass, inspired by the same material of the surfboards, but with including of a metal net inside with a particoular honeycomb frame, that retains the fluid material during the injection. This kind of machining eanble an infinity way to customize the boards.

Browse the whole project with the button on the bottom of the page, or click here!